Description
Apologia’s General Science award-winning curriculum is written to the student in a conversational tone. Our Exploring Creation with General Science, 3rd Edition, course is designed to equip middle school students with the tools they need to easily transition from elementary to middle school level sciences.
This is a true General Science course covering a variety of branches of science, including astronomy, meteorology, oceanography, earth study, geology, paleontology, and environmental science modules giving students a solid foundation in that broad field of study.
What’s Included In Apologia’s Exploring Creation with General Science, 3rd Edition, Advantage Set?
This Apologia Advantage Set includes:
When used together, these items provide your student with an optimal homeschool learning experience.
Curriculum Overview
In Apologia’s Exploring Creation with General Science, 3rd Edition, students will gain an understanding of the world that surrounds them so that they can appreciate the real-world relevance of scientific inquiry and the beauty of Creation.
Students will learn:
- How to utilize the proper scientific method in a detailed and engaging way
- How to record data and report it
- How to read and create graphs (a skill that is found on SAT and ACT exams!). Students are taken through the process of creating several graph types, learning how to properly design and read them, too.
Lesson Plans and Materials
The course is designed to be done 4 days a week. The book is written in a conversational format. The author talks directly to students, walking them through how to complete experiments, how to identify the important parts of the information presented, and where and how to take notes as they progress. The student notebook pairs perfectly with this process, providing easy-to-understand graphics where students fill in the blank spaces as they read. Students learn how to take information out of a text, identify key points, and critically think through what they are learning.
A suggested daily schedule is included in the student notebook so students easily understand what is expected of them each day, yet there is still room for flexibility in the schedule to meet the needs of the student and family.
History of Great, Godly Scientists
Throughout the course, students will learn about many great scientists in history who were driven to study our world out of a desire to better know God as its creator. The course is sandwiched by this historical information within the first module and a presentation of testimonies by modern-day scientists in the last module to help encourage students to study science to better know God and give him glory!
Hands-on Experiments
In early modules, specific portions of the text are highlighted so students know where to find important information and are guided through the lab write-up process. Although students may complete more than one experiment in a module, they are given the opportunity to choose to complete a single lab report, thus building on interest-driven learning. Lab report samples are provided so the students learn proper formatting. All of the experiments in this course utilize easy-to-obtain household materials to demonstrate complex scientific principles, so no special equipment is necessary.
Explore More with Bonus Hands-on Activities: Middle school-aged children greatly benefit from hands-on exploration, so like our elementary series, we include several optional activities (called Explore More) to allow students to further explore the scientific concepts presented in each module.
Character-building Elements
Middle school students are in a transition period between childhood and adulthood, and we believe it is important to emphasize the importance of character. Thus in each module, parents are encouraged (and guided) to incorporate character performance into their student’s grade.
Test Taking Skill Building
There are tests provided for each module, however, students are given many study tips via their student notes within the student notebook, and a practice study guide they complete once at the end of each module. The first two module tests are assigned to be given as open-book tests so that students learn the format of this course and more easily transition to improve the skill of test-taking, a valuable skill for upper grades and even college work.
Final Hands-on Project
The final module is a fun and exciting culmination of the course. It has no exam! Instead, students are given step-by-step instructions to build a Rube-Goldberg machine as a final project. This project incorporates many of the scientific principles learned throughout the year (such as combustion, buoyancy, simple machines, and more).
Amidst the set-up instructions, students will read testimonies from modern-day scientists, sharing how they see God’s hand as they work in their respective fields of science.
Easy Grading
Complete, step-by-step grading rubrics are provided to the parents, teaching how to calculate a student’s module grade from the student’s test, lab work, and character.
